Phoenix Food and Coffee ain't no phoenix, says its boss

Brisbane businessman Sean Corbin says there's a perfectly simple reason he named his new company after a mythical bird whose practice of rising from its own ashes has come to exemplify the illegal movement of assets from one company to another.
Tammy Law

What's in a name? Sometimes less than it seems, according to Sean Corbin, who runs and part owns fast-food franchisor Phoenix Food and Coffee. It's a daring trading name, given the last company he led, Franchise Retail Brands, very recently collapsed in rather convoluted but, he argues, perfectly legitimate circumstances.

But let's start at the beginning. Back in August 2016, Corbin was the CEO of LWP, an ASX-listed mining equipment company that's been a torrid ride for investors. To diversify, the company provided $500,000 in seed capital to establish Franchise Retail Brands, which it intended to list on the ASX in a deal underwritten by Bell Potter. But the ASX wasn't enthused about the investment, saying it breached listing rules, so LWP cancelled it and got its money back. And thus ended its formal links to FRB, not that some of LWP's shareholders – who are currently holding suspended stock worth 0.1¢ a pop – have forgotten the association, or indeed, Corbin, one of the masterminds who led LWP as its value collapsed into very little.

Ownership transferred

Corbin left LWP in September 2016 to head up RRB. Almost a year later, he stepped down from the franchise group, briefly, over a disagreement in corporate strategy. While he was gone, FRB's legal counsel Juliette Wright started her own fledgling food franchising company. Corbin returned to FRB in September 2017, and promptly entered into an arrangement with Wright where FRB would buy Wright Franchising under an option deed. Ownership was duly assigned to FRB, according to ASIC documents. But by December, a new financier indicated to FRB he'd only invest if Corbin stepped away. Which he did (for the second time) on December 17. The option deed over Wright Franchising lapsed, and by January this year FRB had appointed administrators.

Also on December 17, ASIC records show ownership of Wright Franchising was transferred from FRB to Phoenix Franchising, a new company owned by Corbin and Wright. Corbin told us the transaction, whose terms involved substantial sums of money, has been found perfectly reasonable by FRB's liquidators. And, he added, the personal guarantees he had over RRB mean its collapse has left him in a rather difficult financial position.

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So the transactions were legitimate; but why name your business after a mythical bird whose practice of rising from its own ashes has come to exemplify the illegal movement of assets from one company to another, right before the vendor company collapses? Well, Corbin said, it draws on the name of Wright's law firm, Phoenix Lawyers. Which, we've confirmed, is the case. According to ASIC, Phoenix Lawyers was deregistered in early 2016.